Chowdeck, a Lagos-based food delivery start that has remained profitable on a notorious hard and low margin market, has collected $ 9 million in Serie A financing to launch a fast trading strategy and expand to more cities in Nigeria and Ghana.
The equity round was led by Novastar Ventures with the participation of Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, Hoaq and others. Investors focus on the team’s ability to pair local market expertise with execution and transform a notorious difficult sector into a profitable super app for food, groceries and essential things.
“We are happy with this round as it brings us closer to our vision of becoming Africa’s number a super app,” said CEO and co -founder Femuko. “This financing surpasses our growth plans that enable us to expand to more cities, reduce delivery times, scale our grocery footprint and attract the best talent to drive innovation and customer satisfaction.”
Founded in October 2021 by Aluko, Olumide Ojo and Lanre Yusuf, Chowdeck now operates in 11 cities in Nigeria and Ghana and serves 1.5 million customers with a network of more than 20,000 riders. Its logistics system average 30 minutes per Order, and in dense areas, more than half of the deliveries arrive by bicycle.
While prominent players have left or scaled down their African operations, Chowdeck has leaned into the complexity of local markets – provided local meals, an operationally tougher challenge – to build trust with customers.
By 2024, the value of meals delivered through Chowdeck grew more than six times from the previous year. This year, the company says it passed its total of 2024 before July.
The new funding will help Chowdeck roll fast trading, ultra -fast delivery supported by a network of dark stores and hyper -room logistics nodes. The company plans to open 40 dark stores by the end of this year and 500 by the end of 2026, with two to three new stores that are launched every week. Chowdeck raised a $ 2.5 million lap last year.
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Food delivery is a crowded business globally, but when done well, it has led to some other large companies like Doordash.
Quick trade, on the other hand, has been a capital -intensive gamble in most markets. In Europe, gorillas and Getir burned through hundreds of millions of dollars before retiring or consolidating. In India, platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy have had different levels of success with the model when it comes to profitability.
Chowdeck has been profitable since before this increase, and Aluko says the company does not enter cities or verticals without planning to break even within a few weeks.
E.g. Entered the food delivery platform the nearby Ghana in May. Within three months, it handled 1,000 daily orders without paid advertising, which according to Aluko came from suspended demand for a service that provides local favorites with international kitchens. The company aims to strangle this volume to 5,000 daily orders by the end of September 2025.
Aluko says Chowdeck plans to use the same playbook to dark stores that will complement its restaurant and grocery operations.
Another vertical supplement of these operations will be software. In June, the YC supported Start-up Mira, a sales provider for African food and hospitality companies, acquired. Mira’s tools manage stock and orders in real time; Now it will help Chowdeck optimize its activities and place the company as a vertical Saas-Plus logistics provider for restaurants.
Chowdeck’s elevation is a victory for local players in the sector after Jumia’s exit left market share to foreign brands such as Glovo, Bolt Food and Yango. Still, some of these companies have also withdrawn from certain markets, including Nigeria and Ghana, which Chowdeck is now targeted.
Super-apps like Gozem, YC-supported Yassir and MNT-Halan are other local businesses offering food delivery services in other African markets.
“The market is still very early,” Aluko said. “Customer behavior is changing online for the first time. An entire generation is growing up ordering food without ever going into some of the restaurants or markets on our platform.”
For the main investor Novastar Ventures, the effort on execution and local insight is. “Chowdeck builds the future of logistics for African cities,” said partner Brian Waswani Odhiambo. “With deep local insight, a first approach to sustainability and impressive execution redefines the delivery of the last kilometer on the continent.”